Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.143 | Feat. Alex Canavan

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Empowering Women in CNY: A Conversation with Alex Canavan In this episode of Good News York, host Matt from Clickstream Studios welcomes Alex Canavan, founder of the CNY Women's Network and host of the Cultivate CNY podcast. They discuss the recent media coverage of Clickstream Studios' new space, Alex's journey in founding the CNY Women's Network, and the annual CNY Women's Summit. Alex shares insights into her various community initiatives, including fitness events, walking clubs, and her efforts to expand beyond Central New York. The episode also highlights the value of podcasts for networking and building genuine connections within the business community. 00:00 Introduction and Exciting News 00:53 Meet Our Special Guest: Alex Canavan 02:36 The Journey of CNY Women's Network 06:50 The Power of Podcasting for Networking 09:24 Details on the Upcoming CNY Women's Summit 15:21 Community Building and Events 19:30 Future Plans and Personal Branding 20:57 Shoutouts and Closing Remarks

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If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. everybody. Welcome to Good News York. I'm Matt from Clickstream Studios. This has been an exciting week. If you didn't notice or follow us anywhere, which you really should be. We're on the news yesterday.

So Channel 9 came by and checked out our new space at the former Spaghetti Warehouse. I really got to stop saying that and just start branding our ClickStream Studios space on North Clinton Street in Syracuse. But they came by and did a great tour. shout out to the whole Channel 9 crew. I really loved everything they did. They even did an awesome shot in the train. I don't know. That was pretty cool. So I can't thank them enough. But without further ado, you might notice that Mike's not with me. And we have an incredible guest today. I'm very excited. We've talked about this incredible woman a little bit on this podcast before. Her name is Alex, and you've probably seen her if you're from Central New York because she is doing an incredible job with content and her podcast and her incredible CNY Women's Group that we're going to hear

all about. But without further ado, Alex, go ahead and just introduce yourself and tell folks what you're all about. Yeah, thank you, Matt, for having me. I'm super grateful to be here today. I absolutely love what you've done to here in the local Central New York community. I'm Alex Canavan. I am the founder of the CNAW women's network and the host of Cultivate CNY, which is another local podcast here that is a platform for leaders and change makers to be seen and celebrated. And I've been doing that podcast for a little over two years now. We just hit 100 episodes this past September. Awesome.

So it's been a lot of fun, as you know, growing a podcast. and basically what I do, who I am is just I consider myself a connector. So I'm in the middle of the business community here in Central New York, and I have built my career off of growing a platform for business leaders to be seen, celebrated, and supported. That's incredible. That's incredible. So we're going to talk more about this in a minute because you have an incredible event that you've done for a number of years now.

I'd love to know what came first. Was it the podcast? Was it the women's network? What was the chicken or the egg here? Yeah, well, you know what actually came first? Was this event that you just mentioned was the C&Y Women's Summit? It was 2022. I was, gosh, how old was I?

I was 23 years old. I was in business school because I started my degree later than most. And while I was in business school, I was interning at a local financial services company here in Syracuse. And I pitched an idea to them to host the first annual C&Y Women's Summit, which was a event that I, you know, really needed to go to at that time. I was in a place in my career where I was pivoting. And I really wanted to find a mentor because all the podcasts I listened to told me, if you want to be successful, find a mentor. for. Fair. So it was really an event that I needed, but I pitched it to them as a really awesome recruitment strategy. And they loved it. So, long story short, we hosted the first annual

Seenway Women's Summit on International Women's Day back in 2022. Wow. And this year, we're going to be hosting it for the fifth time on March 27th. Wow. And after the first summit, I noticed that there was definitely an opportunity there. And it was. going to be called the CNY Women's Network, but I didn't really know what it was going to be. Sure. And I didn't start the company until after our second summit in 2023. I will say that when I started it, it was, the vision was not nearly as big as it is now. I have a lot more clarity, a lot more data, and a lot more direction now.

So it is still definitely a baby company, but we are now a media and PR company that operates out of the mission to create more connections, opportunities, and inspiration for women across upstate New York. That's incredible. And the podcast really started, once I decided to start the C&Y Women's Network, I knew I also wanted to start a podcast. So the podcast started at the same time. And I knew that I, the reason why I, I mean, first of all, I always wanted to. to have a podcast. I was a big consumer, still am, huge consumer business podcast. I love entrepreneurs. I love hearing their stories and how they got to where they are. Because I started school late and I don't consider myself to have like the traditional higher education background than most people do in this region.

I really, you know, I feel like I had to be pretty resourceful when it came to educating myself in business. And one of the ways I did that was just listening to a ton of podcasts and just listening to people's stories. So I took a lot of inspiration from the podcast I listened to and really saw a gap here in this community. And I knew that there was a true need for people like myself, young, emerging, ambitious people in central New York to go and get inspired by the people right here in this community. And, you know, I'm born and raised here. And I also kind of wanted to change the narrative that Syracuse is actually a great place to be, especially for dreamers and doers. And you can build the career of your dreams here. You just have to really, to be scrappy and you just have to try, right?

So I just think that podcasts are awesome for inspiring others. But I really, I cultivate C&Y was really this thing that I knew I needed to create. So people like myself could look up to people in the community and just hear their stories and realize that there are cool people here doing really awesome things. Yeah. So that's the vision. I love it. I love it. And it's doing incredibly well.

You know, it's, I feel like it's delivering on that mission. I see so many people that I know and even people. people I wasn't familiar with on your show who have just these incredible inspiring stories. And that's, I feel like you're, you're hitting all the marks with that. So, so it's a great job. One of the things I wanted to ask you is, and I've seen you talk about this a little bit on one of your episodes, but this is something that that I talk about all the time with our clients and things like that in terms of how the podcast can help your business as a creator and making those connections with people that you might not otherwise make connections with, right?

Can you talk about that piece a little bit? Yeah. So I didn't realize until I was like at least six months into hosting the podcast that it was actually my greatest tool for networking. It is like truly the best networking hack you can do because you're inviting people that you admire onto your show and you're giving them an opportunity. And it's, I would say, you know, you're coming into the. relationship with making a deposit, right? You're not, there's nothing wrong with this, but you're not, you know, asking someone to coffee so you could pick their brain. Especially if they're super influential, busy people. You want to come into that relationship providing value in some way.

And I think hosting a podcast is a great way to do that, especially if it's really well produced and is, you know, you're delivering the content to them and say, hey, you can use this at your will. I'm just happy to, you know, have had some of your time. And I, you know, I tell people that all the time is this is my best networking tool. And, you know, at first I was simply interviewing people that I admire and I still do. But now it's a little bit more strategic as I continue to grow the business. Yeah. And I think that's incredibly smart.

I've been trying to preach that for a long time because, you know, the way I describe it is, I can call up a business owner and go, hey, can I come pitch my services to you? And you're like, no, I don't have time for that. You know, they get those calls 100 times a day. You call them up and, hey, would you like to be a guest on my podcast and talk about yourself? Yep. It's hardly ever a no. It's so easy.

And I've picked up so many clients and friends, honestly, in having conversations like this, we're not even talking about what I do or what I sell or anything like that. But by the time we're done, we're friends. And I can't tell you how many folks have said, well, so now, What are you doing? How can you help me with whatever? And it becomes just such an incredible relationship builder, which, you know, as we know, is the key to everything is, is relationships and networking, which is your whole home base, which I love. Tell us, if you could, Alex, a little bit about, as we jump around a little bit, a little bit more about your summit. So you've got

one coming up the, I believe the fifth one, right, in March? It's going to be the fifth annual summit. I can't believe it's already been five years. just on its own. Yeah. It's really impressive. And I will say, I mean, the summit is, it represents so much to me for a few different reasons. I really think that the first summit that I, you know, this was the first opportunity that I felt like I got to do something in my career that was big. Before I did any of this, I was a professional makeup artist. I started building that business at 19. So I, you know, I would consider myself a business person since the start. Sure. But, you know, the summit, the first summit, you know, to be young and creative and to pitch

in this big idea that at the time was kind of crazy because we were actually still wearing masks in public and there was no events happening. Gotcha. But, you know, between pitching the idea and execution, there was six weeks total and two weeks before the summit happened the mask mandate was lifted and this event was one of the first events community events that happened in syracuse since the pandemic and so there was this true sense of like excitement and you could see that there was such a desire for it um and so and honestly that summit changed my career changed my life gave me the opportunity to start this company, which has been an absolute dream. I will, I'm not too afraid to admit that I have always wanted to build a brand. Sure. And there's so many, I've listened to so many entrepreneurs talk

about, you know, their journey. And they've always said, I would have never imagined building this company or building a brand. But I will say, like, this is, once I saw the opportunity, I realized this is the opportunity of a lifetime. And so after the second summit, I could feel that there was really something there with substance and I realized that I needed to, you know, act on this opportunity before someone else did because there was, you could feel the energy at the second summit. And so I decided that I was going to drop out of school. I was going to slowly close down my business and quit my other part-time jobs because I had like a million things going on. And I was going to double down on this and really.

take a leap of faith and try, you know? So this summit, you know, the first summit was, happened after hours 4.37 p.m. Now the summit is a full day event that happens, you know, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It includes all the things, really awesome keynote speakers, multiple stages and different breakout rooms. So it's kind of now become this build your own experience for women that attend and, you know, panel discussions, breakout sessions, master classes. This year, we are elevating the event through really our programming. The event is going to bring in around 500 women leaders and entrepreneurs. We are including speakers from across the whole center state region. So we're hoping. You're listening to a podcast right now.

Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and hundreds more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads like this, even with just 10 listeners a month. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start free at RSS.com. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking,

the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. I've been to bring attendees in from all over into Syracuse for the whole That's awesome. And I'm really excited because we've gotten a little bit more intentional with our programming this year.

And I really want all women that attend to walk away feeling like they learn something and they really, they're going to, they got something, at least one thing there that they're going to take with them into the rest of their careers. And you know, in terms of who attends this event, it's such a wide range of women professionals and executives. You have early stage women professionals that are really needing to. to network and make connections. And then you have, you know, high-level women executives that are speaking at the event and staying all day because they just want to support me and show their support.

But this year we have, we added on a ticket tier that we're calling our executive level ticket tier. And there's going to be programming that's only available for those ticket holders. That's really going to be some high-level stuff and, you know, some hot seat coaching and some really influential speakers that we're bringing in for those people. But, yeah, it's best. It's been a journey. And this time of year right now, my life is pretty consumed with this event. And, you know, it's, honestly, my whole year revolves around this event. Yeah. My, you know, it's your Super Bowl.

The way it is my, it's my Super Bowl, the summit, you know, that's what we call it. All right, it's summit season. Let's go. And it really feels like I, in terms of, you know, what my life is like and what my nervous system is like, it's truly like just build. up to this moment. And it feels like you've hit the summit on a mountain that day. It really does. And then you got to come down afterwards. So it's a lot of fun. And this event is really special. And I know it's special to a lot of other people, too, the stories I've heard. What we'll definitely get all your plugs before we're totally done. But just real quick, if folks want to get tickets, they want to find out more about that event specifically. Where do they go?

So you're going to go to CNYwomensnetwork.com forward slash summit. You can also check out our social media. We have all the links. So at C&Y Women's Network. If you want to follow the podcast, it's at CultivateCNY. If you want to follow me, Alexandra. dot Canavan is my username. That's awesome.

That's awesome. Is it, am I correct in thinking it's at the OnCenter? Yes. Yep. Awesome. At the OnCenter, March 27th, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Get your tickets.

Now you, outside of that massive event, I see you do some other things with the group, right? Some get-togethers and, Oh, yeah. You're getting outside and you're doing all kinds of cool things, right? Absolutely. So aside from some of like the marketing PR services that we offer behind the scenes, forward facing we're a community first. This whole brand has been built off of creating community.

And so we have taken a really holistic approach to that. I, you know, there's so many ways to create connection and to build your community. And it really has a lot to do with what your values are. You know, if you value your fitness life and your health and getting outside, then we have events for that. If you value, you know, professional development and skill development, there are events for that. So we offer so many things. A lot of our events are like events series. We host around at least four events a month.

Oh, wow. And, you know, those range from our, from coffee meetups to we, we do. these pop-up fitness classes where we collaborate with local boutique studios and offer an opportunity for our members to take a free class there. We have the CNY Women's Walking Club, which is a six-month weekly, honestly now it's going to be twice a week, six-month meetup event series. Wow. And that's our, you know, our largest free accessible option for women to get together and move their bodies and do something good for themselves, but just have authentic conversations along the way and get out and enjoy the beautiful, you know, landscapes and nature that we have here in upstate New York.

So we host walking meetups all around Central New York from May through October, but we also host hiking meetups once a month, and those are always so much fun. I think I've seen some of those videos. They're so much fun. And those really, honestly, I think those meetups were the highlight of my year. I really had a lot of fun planning them because I'm super passionate about travel. And this year, we're going to be venturing out a little bit further, especially since our goal this year is to start expanding our reach beyond Central New York. So we're going to be doing a hiking meetup at Letchworth State Park.

And I definitely want to get out to the Adirondacks. And that'll be something that's more of an excursion. We want to figure out organizing a shuttle and, you know, a lunch situation so we can make a day of it and keep everyone. in one piece too. That kind of's great. Got to keep our people safe. Yes, absolutely. That's awesome. I love that. I love hearing about all these things and what's what I like the most, I think, honestly, is as you sort of mentioned, you took a leap of faith or you just did it. And there's so many brilliant people who have great ideas who never do anything and they're an accountant, you know, like there's nothing wrong with being an accountant. We need accountants, yes,

but I know. I need. I just have so much respect for people that, that take that leap and do these unique things. That's the only way it'll happen. And you know, sometimes it doesn't work. And your case, it's working really well. So it was, it was a great leap. But I just, I really admire that. And I think that's something we need more of, especially in Central New York, as we talk about trying to really show off how incredible this place really is. And we definitely share that goal. But it's such a great, great thing that you're doing. I think you're in a great place, especially as Syracuse is rapidly rising now. I've been talking about Micron for years and now it's legit. There's equipment moving and

things happening right now and business is following rapidly. Absolutely. To build these networks, that's how all of us make those connections, get those positions and those projects and things like that is through networking. So what you're building for women and honestly for everyone in Central New York. It's really cool to see. Thank you so much, Matt. Alex, before I let you go, give us a little tease of the podcast. Who's coming up?

Who's some coming guests we can look forward to? Yeah. So we are getting, we're getting super intentional this year for the podcast. My goal for the podcast is also to start expanding outside of Central New York. So we're going to start bringing people from Rochester, Albany, Buffalo, all the things. There's going to be, you know, in terms of who's coming up, a lot of the speakers that are going to be at this year's summit will be coming up. And I'm also going to start doing some more solo episodes. So I'm really excited about that.

My goal is to host at least one solo episode a month. And I think that's going to be, it's a long time coming. I've, every year I've said I'm going to invest a little bit more. into my personal brand and developing myself as a thought leader in the space because I, as you can tell, I love to talk. But I just feel like sometimes when you're interviewing people all the time, you don't really get to share some of your deeper thoughts and ideas. And that's something I definitely want to do more of this year. So that's great. I love to see that. And that's, as you know, being a marketing and PR person today, a personal brand is huge. And even they're starting to get that

message executives of big companies starting to work hard to build their personal brand because that helps everything. So I think you're absolutely on the right track. And I love to see you're doing a great job at it. So that's the coolest part. One last thing I want to ask you, if you wouldn't mind or if you'd like to, let's shout out your production team because your content is phenomenal. It looks great. So I'd love to just give them some love for all that Hard work. Definitely, you know, I will say this 100%. I would not be able to be as consistent if it weren't for these guys. I mean, so many people sing my praises for how consistent I am. And I know it's really because I have an incredible team. So I shout out Dime Media.

Eric and Andy are the co-founders. Evan is really our main producer for the show. He does an incredible job editing our content and all of our social reels and all that good stuff. Awesome. And not only are these guys great at what they do, they really support me. They really want to see me, you know, grow and be successful. And so they're always constantly working on researching more ways to elevate the show, not just because it makes them look good, but really because they believe in me. So it's awesome.

It's been an absolute pleasure working with them. They also shoot a lot of our more professional content for our events, too, and definitely will be at the summit. So I've been working with them. This will be our third year working with them at the summit. And I can't say enough great things about them. They're good people. Like I said, you can see it in the quality of the work. They do a great job.

So I just wanted to give them a little love for that because it's, you know, hard work. Yeah, there's a whole village. I mean, it takes a village. And one of my goals this year is to really, at least for the CNY Women's Network, we're going to be launching an ambassador program for our members to take part And that's going to look like, you know, our members showing up and hosting our events and being the face of these events and then also contributing to our channels and be, you know, kind of honing their creative gifts. I think this is going to be a really great way to create more visibility for our members, but also to continue growing the platform and putting out good content. So it's really, I'm hopeful that this year I can really start to take a step back as the face of the CNY Women's Network and hopefully include so many more.

faces and voices at the forefront and it takes a village, right? I love that. I love that. That's such a great approach. I love you got the strategy just down for everything. You're definitely far more organized than I am, so I have to admire that. Strategy is one thing. I'm good at strategy.

It's the execution. That's the hard part though. Getting from point A to point B is always the hardest part. I've got some really cool people that I work with that hold me accountable and also have different gifts than I do that are able to like really figure out, okay, what are the operations behind this thing that we want to do? And keeping me organized is huge. So that's awesome. That's awesome. I love to hear that. Alex, this has been such a pleasure. I've, I've wanted to talk to you for quite a while now. And it was so great that we were able to make it

happen. And again, to celebrate one of the last interviews we'll do in this set. So I think that's a cool, cool way to put it to bed in before too long. after the summit when things cool down, but we definitely need to have you back to our new place and help us break that in. So that'd be pretty cool. I would love that. I'm so excited to see your new space. Congratulations on this, you know, huge growth. Thank you. And the spaghetti warehouse is pretty iconic. I mean, I'm really excited to see what you do with the space. It is. We're going to keep, you know, a number of the things that people love. Then we're going to add a bunch of just new and very unique things. So it's going to get that, you know,

know, historic vibe, but definitely you're going to tell there's something new going on there. So yeah, I think it's going to be pretty fun if everything comes together the way I picture it. Yeah. But yeah, with that, Alex, C&Y Women's Network, follow the podcast. All of the links and websites and stuff will be in the description as always. And other than that, follow us. We've got a long list of incredible things going on episodes all this week leading up to our big move. I don't even know what our schedule.

take a couple days off as we're moving, but probably not that much. So stick around. But also, in the meantime, don't forget to check out our boy, Zach, with Ads on the Go. Get Ads on the Go.com is the sponsor of this show. Zach just won an award, actually, I saw. One of the local chambers gave him a rookie of the year business award and shout out to him. He's such a cool guy. But in any case, I'm Matt. That's Alex. Danny's behind the board. Mike's skiing in Alaska. I don't know. We'll be back tomorrow. Bye.